keep you among the hills, and inveigle you
into long drives and walks by telling you exciting yarns that will
take the place of the dissipations of business. You needn't think you
will have to mope around the piazza, your body on a mountain and your
mind in Wall Street. You are getting old and rich, and you must begin
to take an interest in other things besides business."

"Now, that's thoughtful and kind of you," he said, and then he lapsed
into a revery that the contraction of his brow showed to be not
altogether agreeable.

At last he said, "Madge, I half believe you are right. I am and have
been too devoted to business. It's all very well as long as you can
drive it, but when it begins to drive you it is a hard task-master.
The times are bad. Instead of making anything, one has to use all his
faculties to keep from losing what he has made. It's getting to be a
grind. I sometimes wish I was out of it, but suppose I shouldn't know
what to do with myself."

"That's just it, Henry, you wouldn't. You must become interested in
other things, and that's a process which requires time, and I'll help
you."

"Oh, you," he said, laughing--"you will soon have all you can do to
keep your beaux at bay."

"Beaux in this free and enlightened land have only certain rights
which a girl is bound to respect. Should there be any, and they
unreasonable, you'll see," she said, with a little decisive nod.
Then she added, gravely: "I don't believe you would be content out of
business, but I should think there was such a thing as trying to do
so much business that it would become a burden, and, perhaps, a heavy
one. You may think I'm a little goose, talking of what I know nothing
about; but I've read a great deal, and, of late, books worth reading.
I don't believe it is a good thing to change one's habits and pursuits
suddenly; and what's more, Henry, I believe that when the times are
better business will be as great a source of satisfaction to you as
ever. As I suggested before, you must gradually become interested in
other things which can take the place of business as you grow old."

"What a wise little woman we have become!" said Mr. Muir. "Here you
are giving your guardian sound advice--you who, I imagined once, would
take no more thought for the morrow than a lily of the field, and a
very pale one at that. This is a greater change than any that Mary
exclaims about."

"Perhaps you think me very presuming," answered Madge, colorin